Identifying barriers in post-concussion clinical management and interprofessional collaboration among healthcare providers in New Mexico: A descriptive report

Background

Concussion is a major public health concern affecting millions of youth, adolescent, and young adults annually. Many concussion consensus guidelines recommend use of interprofessional collaborations to support continuity of care. Despite advancements in concussion literature, there are limited studies investigating concussion training and management among interprofessional healthcare providers in consideration of patient- and clinic-specific barriers, all of which may hinder successful post-concussion management.

Objective

To a) compare concussion training, roles and responsibilities of interprofessional healthcare providers in New Mexico (NM) and b) identify barriers to providing post-concussion care.

Methods

An electronic survey was administered to interprofessional healthcare providers across NM from May–November 2023 (N = 73; with n = 42 included in the final analyses).

Results

Participants indicated they used a multi-modal approach to acquire concussion training, with a majority providing care for concussions resulting from motor vehicle accidents, sport, and/or recreational activities. Moreover, the lowest levels of interprofessional collaboration were centered in partnership and coordination. Lastly, qualitative analyses yielded several representative examples of the five of Social Determinants of Health (SDoH).

Conclusion

Our study highlights the unique SDoH of residents in NM which may influence concussion disclosure and/or compliance. Additional research is warranted to evaluate strategies to enhance interprofessional collaborative concussion management in consideration of SDoH.